Nov 25, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Washington Wizards center Alex Sarr (20) dunks the ball as Atlanta Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher (10) looks on in the second half at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Wizards' Alex Sarr Gets Better of Draft Day Rival

Originally posted on Washington Wizards on SI
By Henry Brown | Last updated Nov 27, 2025 3:00 PM ET

A year and a half ago, star basketball prospect Alex Sarr refused a workout for the Atlanta Hawks, the team set to lead the 2024 NBA Draft off with the first-overall pick.

What followed was the first documented instance of a player forcing himself to the Washington Wizards, the first time in a very long time that they'd been seen as any desirable destination in any sense. They put a bow on their first season of tanking by bringing in the young French center that many draft analysts had rated as the top talent of the bunch with pick No. 2, and arguably came out of that comparatively weaker class with a few other prospects in Kyshawn George and Bub Carrington.

The Hawks rebounded by picking up Zaccharie Risacher, a ready-made role player with day-one upside as a lengthy 3&D option along the wings. His stable rookie season won him a bit more acclaim than his fellow First Team All-Rookie counterpart, with Atlanta's man finishing as the Rookie of the Year runner-up, but he was added to Sarr's growing list of victims earlier this week in a trip up to Washington.

Playing like an All-Sarr

The Wizards' rising star has bounced back from his own up-and-down debut season to look fully deserving of all the hype he was foisted with entering draft season, averaging 18.1 points, 8.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists off of the back of his improved finishing, rim-centric shot diet and ascension into an alpha scoring role.

He had another monster outing in hosting the Hawks, notching 27 points on 11/15 shooting to help bury Atlanta's front court. And what's more, his Wizards walked away with their first home win of the season in a 132-113 whooping, finally snapping an ugly 14-game skid.

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Risacher, along with the rest of his Hawks, could only watch as the young center led the Wizards to securing the win following CJ McCollum's and Corey Kispert's early heat checks. His 17 points weren't nothing, but he, along with all of his teammates, was ineffective in slowing Washington's early momentum, and had to settle for doing all of his damage in the face of a 30-point deficit.

Sarr, on the other hand, continued proving that he may have been the right pick at the top of most prospect boards last summer, ending dozens of Atlanta hate-watches in netting his biggest win yet against his draft night counterpart.

This article first appeared on Washington Wizards on SI and was syndicated with permission.

More must-reads: